Simulation of Radiation Effects in Structural Materials of Reactors Using High-energy Heavy,ion irradiations

Key words: 
• reactor /
• structural material /
• high-energy heavy-ion irradiation /
• radiation effect）

Abstract: Radiation damage in structural materials of fission/fusion reactors is mainly attributed to the evolution of intensive atom displacement damage induced by energetic particles （ n, α and/or fission fragments） and highrate helium doping by direct α particle bombardments and/or （n, α） reactions. It can cause severe degradation of reactor structural materials such as surface blistering, bulk void swelling, deformation, fatigue, embrittlement, stress erosion corrosion and so on that will significantly affect the operation safety of reactors. However, up to now, behavior of structural materials at the end of their service can hardly be fully tested in a real reactor. In the present paper, damage process in reactor structural materials is briefly introduced, then the advantages of energetic ion implantation/irradiation especially high-energy heavy ion irradiation are discussed, and several typical examples on simulation of radiation effects in reactor candidate structural materials using high-energy heavy ion irradiations are introduced. Experimental results and theoretical analysis suggested that irradiation with energetic particles especially high-energy heavy ions is a very useful technique for simulating the evolution of microstructures and macro-properties of reactor structural materials.